Friday, August 5, 2016

Horror Unlimited / Complete Voodoo Vol. 2 (NEWS)

Good friend and occasional HAUNTED HORROR story contributor, Tommy Stanziola, donated the scans for our last post (click HERE if you missed it), as well as the scans for today's post from the July-August 1954 issue of Voodoo #16. "Horror Unlimeted" is a fun tale that-- wait a second, that's NOT how you spell "unlimited!!!" Anyway, Tommy says this one "scared the shit out of me as a kid!" --let's see what it does to you! And speaking of Voodoo, you can now pre-order The Complete Voodoo Vol. 2 from IDW / Yoe Books Chilling Archives of Horror Comics hardcover collection series, coming in November! Just click HERE after you read today's story! Special thanks again to Tommy for the scans!

7 comments:

I'm not surprised they misspelled "Unlimited." On the original cover page of this issue--they misspell "shroud" as "shrowd." I love how even back in the day, comic book typos still happened.

Yeah, this story is a mixture of amusing and creepy at the same time. It's creepy because these little red creatures eventually imprison the couple in their own home and brainwash and kidnap their children. Yet at the same time, it's hard to take a bunch of tiny, naked red men who call themselves "wudgies" seriously. Also, that note from the children is unintentionally hilarious.

For kids reading this, they can only wonder what kind of school the wudgies had in store for the boys in the story, is it a school to teach them how to be evil or is it a lure to claim the boy's souls.

For grownups reading this, the subtle censorship (you don't need that, we will entertain you and tell you what to do) and loss of control of one's own life (electrified door) becoming a slave to the new masters, the wudgies.

As Brian Barnes noted, with the red scare alive and well in the fifties, this story might have been a subliminal message of what the Reds would do, be friendly at first, then control your life and brainwash your children and turn them against you. The little guys were red so there might have been a subtle way of playing on the fear of the Red devils form overseas.

couldn't find any fifties definition of a wudgie, maybe this was here the name came from-

Hm. I'd say a story about literally red menaces invading our homes and destroying our families is just about the polar opposite of subliminal. This story is cautionary propaganda against the commie labor insurgency and its threat to our nuclear values, applied with all the subtlety of a hammer (and a sickle). Makes Invasion of the Body Snatchers look like a covert allusion.

As for little spirits that live in your house and talk to your children how about Gef the Talking Mongoose? It happened in the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea in 1931. This little spirit would start making animal-like sounds inside the walls of a local farmhouse. It would later make baby-like gurglings as if it was learning to speak and eventually carried out complete conversations.

Around the same time H.P. Lovecraft wrote the story The Dreams in the Witch House about a college sudent whose room is connected to other dimensions and is being pursued by the terrifying witch Keziah Mason. Her familial, Brown Jenkin, was a little like Gef. It was the size of a large rat but with the face of an evil bearded man with fangs and had little human hands. He would nuzzle people in the dark. At night, when nobody but you was in the room, you would see his little human face staring at you from the rat-hole in the wall. And then he would start tittering...

(This is actually Rick's son Evan, comics buff to the max.)Karswell-Long time follower, first time commenter. Been lovin' the pre-code (and occasional Silver and Bronze ages) horror stories you've posted on this here blog. The macabre stories, the great art, the creepy hosts- what's not to love? Especially love the Atlas stuff. Great story you've posted here. Gotta love how they misspelled "Unlimited" there! Oh, you Iger Shop, you! BTW, could you post "Nothing is Left Alive!" by Howie Post, from "Men's Adventures" #23? Great chiller thriller.

Your Horrible Host of Horrors

(aka Steve Banes) Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, and DEVIL TALES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal, putrid collection-- except where noted.)

"...the capital of online comic book horrors... saying "Not the best story THOIA has run" is a bit like saying "one of Beethoven's lesser symphonies!"---Quasar Dragon

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